IMSA: Sports car racing’s Iron Man

Pierre Kaffer wasn’t a happy man last winter. His long-term deal to race in LMP2 had come to an end and there wasn’t a drive on the horizon. Six months on, and the German’s feet are barely touching the ground. The German is racing almost every weekend and has so far competed in every category of international sportscar racing with one ironic exception. He has yet to get his backside in a P2 car this season.

This weekend at Watkins Glen, Kaffer again turns out for the Risi Competizione Ferrari squad in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in what has now become a full-time deal for the remainder of the season alongside Giancarlo Fisichella. He is also contesting the five-race European Le Mans Series with the Austrian AT Racing Ferrari team and took part in a program of events on the Nurburgring-Nordschliefe with Audi, culminating in last weekend’s 24 Hours at the ‘Ring with daredevil and record-breaking skydiver Felix Baumgartner.

There were also a couple of early-season appearances in the TUSCC with the Starworks team at the Daytona and Sebring enduros, in a one-make LMPC ORECA-Chevrolet (BELOW) and then a Prototype Riley-Dinan/BMW. He got an ultra-late call to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and, to (almost) complete the set, he is scheduled to contest the final four races of the FIA World Endurance Championship in the new Lotus-AER P1/01 LMP1.

“It’s turning out to be a very good season,” says Kaffer in a matter of fact way. “At the beginning of the year it looked as though it was going to be quite difficult.”

Kaffer, who had nothing on the table when the Pecom Racing squad called a halt to its P2 program after three seasons, isn’t even sure how many races he’ll end up doing this year.

“I haven’t counted,” says the 37-year-old, who also has a couple more races on in the VLN long-distance championship on the Nordschleife planned. “Better to ask me at the end of the season. To be honest, I’m just treating each race as it comes and enjoying my racing.”

Kaffer is certainly enjoying racing for Houston-based Risi again. His recall to its lineup for the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca TUSCC event in May represented something of a homecoming. Kaffer finished second in GT2 in the American Le Mans Series in 2009, a season in which he was part of the team’s clean sweep of class honors in the ALMS’s major enduros at Sebring, Le Mans and Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans.

“The biggest success of my career was winning the Sebring 12 Hours with Audi [driving for the British Veloqx team in 2004], but after that it is everything I achieved with Risi,” he explains. “I won so many big races with them. We won Sebring twice [2009 and ‘10], Le Mans and Petit, so I have a lot of good memories. When I came back at Laguna, I found the same team as I remembered. The crew is the same and there is such a good atmosphere. I am really looking forward to Watkins Glen and the rest of the season.”

Kaffer’s return to Risi to drive alongside Fisichella in its solo GT Le Mans class Ferrari 458 Italia netted third place at Laguna. A subsequent test at Watkins Glen last month led to him gaining a permanent hold on the seat originally filled by Matteo Malucelli.